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Higaonna became a professor at [[Takushoku University]] in Tokyo in 1949. While there, he published numerous scholarly essays in the ''[[Ryukyu Shimpo|Ryûkyû Shimpô]]'' newspaper and other magazines, and rose to prominence in the field of Okinawan Studies. Some of his most important works include ''Shô Tai kô jitsuroku'' ("True Record of Lord [[Sho Tai|Shô Tai]]," 1924), ''Reimeiki no kaigai kôtsûshi'' ("History of Overseas Transport of the Dawning of a New Era," 1941), ''Tai Biruma Indo'' ("Thailand, Burma, India," 1941), and ''Nantô fudoki'' (1950).
Higaonna became a professor at [[Takushoku University]] in Tokyo in 1949. While there, he published numerous scholarly essays in the ''[[Ryukyu Shimpo|Ryûkyû Shimpô]]'' newspaper and other magazines, and rose to prominence in the field of Okinawan Studies. Some of his most important works include ''Shô Tai kô jitsuroku'' ("True Record of Lord [[Sho Tai|Shô Tai]]," 1924), ''Reimeiki no kaigai kôtsûshi'' ("History of Overseas Transport of the Dawning of a New Era," 1941), ''Tai Biruma Indo'' ("Thailand, Burma, India," 1941), and ''Nantô fudoki'' (1950).
Higaonna's first journal article, entitled ''Tametomo Ryûkyû torai ni tsukite'' ("Regarding Tametomo coming to Ryûkyû"), dealt with the story of [[Minamoto no Tametomo]] (a member of the [[Minamoto clan]] of samurai, and descendant of [[Emperor Seiwa]]) coming to Ryûkyû in the late 12th century and siring [[Shunten|the first king of Okinawa]]. It was published in the journal ''Rekishi chiri'' in April [[1906]], the same year that Katô Sangô published the first article denying the veracity of that legend. In his essay, Higashionna suggests that as this myth is the central grounds for the argument that Okinawa belongs, historically and fundamentally, to Japan, it must be the departure point for any scholar of Ryukyuan history. The following year, in 1907, he published a number of articles on the subject in the ''Ryûkyû Shimpô'' newspaper, and then in 1908, another formal journal article in ''Rekishi chiri'', in which he asserted that the story of Tametomo was not invented to curry favor with Imperial Japan, but rather existed in Ryûkyû at least as early as [[1650]].<ref>Yokoyama, 6.</ref>
He was a proponent of the idea that Okinawa was the only place where a purer traditional Japanese-like culture still survived, as Japan modernized, and that the [[Okinawan language]] retained more features of ancient Japanese than did any (mainland) Japanese dialect.<ref>Yokoyama Manabu 横山学, ''Ryûkyû koku shisetsu torai no kenkyû'' 琉球国使節渡来の研究, Tokyo: Yoshikawa kôbunkan (1987), 11-13.</ref>
He was a proponent of the idea that Okinawa was the only place where a purer traditional Japanese-like culture still survived, as Japan modernized, and that the [[Okinawan language]] retained more features of ancient Japanese than did any (mainland) Japanese dialect.<ref>Yokoyama Manabu 横山学, ''Ryûkyû koku shisetsu torai no kenkyû'' 琉球国使節渡来の研究, Tokyo: Yoshikawa kôbunkan (1987), 11-13.</ref>
